Oakland Achieves: Data for Student Success

New Measures, Similar Results

August 2018: Oakland Achieves releases first report looking at all Oakland public schools according to the new state dashboard.

The data landscape has been shifting dramatically since Oakland Achieves started six years ago. With the launch of the new California School Dashboard in March 2017, we have moved from a focus solely on academics under the former Academic Performance Index (API) to a multi-measure system that blends academic and culture/climate data.

Unfortunately, the new Dashboard and overarching accountability system are not yet fully understood by families, policy makers, and the community as a whole. And while the data landscape has changed significantly, some of the preliminary results we are seeing for Oakland unfortunately have not.

This first of its kind report introduces the new system, provides a snapshot of how Oakland public schools are doing, highlights the inclusion of change in the metrics, and aspires to galvanize action on behalf of children and families.

Informing Equity, an ERS study commissioned by the Oakland Achieves Partnership, examines data for the 2014-15 school year from district-run and charter schools in Oakland across three key dimensions: student need, resource levels, and resource use. Guided by a Citywide Study Steering Committee of Oakland district leaders, charter leaders, and education advocates, the purpose of the study was to build a shared fact base as a first step in helping Oakland stakeholders explore new opportunities and solutions to challenges in the education sector. The report reflects a snapshot of financial and student-level data, and except where stated, does not speculate on intentions.

Please use and share this report as a tool to explore meaningful next steps, opportunities for learning, and solutions to ensure that all students have access to a high-quality public education, including Oakland’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged students.

Oakland Achieves 4th Annual Public Education Progress Report

The Oakland Achieves Partnership brings together community organizations with a deep commitment to public education to share expertise and resources to remove barriers to school success, expand educational opportunities, and help all learners to excel from their earliest years through adulthood.

For the first time, the Public Education Progress Report includes comparable data from all of Oakland’s public schools, district-run and charter. The fourth annual report on student progress in Oakland allows educators, policymakers, and the Oakland Achieves Partnership to track our progress, target our resources, and hold ourselves accountable.

*Note: Chrome users and some others have had trouble viewing the PDF report in their browsers. If the colors and charts are hard to see, please right-click on the link above to download to your computer and then open in Adobe Reader.

The report reviews a full range of data from Oakland’s district-run and charter school student outcomes from cradle to career. We have added several new indicators since last year, including kindergarten readiness and Financial Aid Form completion.

Now educators, parents, and others can see at a glance how Oakland students and schools are doing. Our goal is that leaders and advocates will use this data to come together and focus energy and investments where they’re needed to make opportunity a reality for every public school student.

Oakland Achieves Third Annual Public Education Progress Report

The Oakland Achieves Partnership brings together community organizations with a deep commitment to public education to share expertise and resources to remove barriers to school success, expand educational opportunities, and help all learners to excel from their earliest years through adulthood.

As in past reports, this third annual report on student progress in Oakland allows educators, policymakers, and the Oakland Achieves Partnership to track our progress, target our resources, and hold ourselves accountable.

*Note: Chrome users and some others have had trouble viewing the PDF report in their browsers. If the colors and charts are hard to see, please right-click on the link above to download to your computer and then open in Adobe Reader.

The report reviews a full range of data on Oakland student outcomes from cradle to career. Wherever possible, it includes data from district-operated schools and charter schools. We have added several new indicators since last year, including kindergarten readiness and Financial Aid Form completion.

Now educators, parents, and others can see at a glance how Oakland students and schools are doing. Our goal is that leaders and advocates will use this data to come together and focus energy and investments where they’re needed to make opportunity a reality for every public school student.

Here is a sample of what was said about the third annual report during the release event via social media.

New Report on School Attendance in Oakland Released

The Oakland Achieves Partnership brings together community organizations with a deep commitment to public education to share expertise and resources to remove barriers to school success, expand educational opportunities, and help all learners to excel from their earliest years through adulthood.

In this report on attendance in Oakland, we examine data on Oakland’s rates of chronic absence (missing 10 percent of school days or 18 days per year) and its connection to student outcomes.

The report, titled Attending School Every Day: Making Progress and Taking Action in Oakland Schools, highlights the ways schools throughout the city are making sure more kids attend school consistently, and concludes with ways that everyone – students, parents, educators and community members – can play an important role in reducing chronic absence.

*Note: Chrome users and some others have had trouble viewing the PDF report in their browsers. If the colors and charts are hard to see, please right-click on the link above to download to your computer and then open in Adobe Reader.

What experts in the field are saying about ‘Attending School Every Day’:

“This report highlights the progress that has been made over time in Oakland through district supports and exemplary work in bright spot schools. It is also a call for additional action and stakeholders to get involved to ensure students are in school every day so they can learn, thrive and succeed.”

Hedy Chang, Director, Attendance Works

“Improving attendance is the collective responsibility of our entire city – families, youth, school district, public and community-based agencies, businesses and faith-based organizations – all of us working together to make sure our students are in school on time, every day.”

Curtiss Sarikey, Deputy Chief of Community Schools and Student Services
for the Oakland Unified School District

News Coverage:

The report paints a rare picture of attendance patterns in schools, something few districts can offer given the lack of data to track individual students other than overall daily attendance at schools.

Several nonprofit organizations, including the Urban Strategies Council, Great Oakland Public Schools Leadership Center, and the Oakland Public Education Fund, are collaborating to help boost attendance at Oakland schools. They released a report about the patterns of chronic absenteeism, which shows, among other things, that transportation barriers and health problems often lead to absenteeism, and that parents sometimes need help to figure out how to get their kids to school daily.

Second Annual Progress Report on Oakland Student Outcomes Now Available

The Oakland Achieves Partnership brings together community organizations with a deep commitment to public education to share expertise and resources to remove barriers to school success, expand educational opportunities, and help all learners to excel from their earliest years through adulthood.

In this second annual report on student progress in Oakland, we examine how well public education outcomes match the great potential of our children. Click here to download the report.

*Note: Chrome users and some others have had trouble viewing the PDF report in their browsers. If the colors and charts are hard to see, please right-click on the link above to download to your computer and then open in Adobe Reader.

The report reviews a full range of data on Oakland student outcomes from cradle to career. Wherever possible, it includes data from district-operated schools and charter schools. We have added several new indicators since last year, including kindergarten readiness and Financial Aid Form completion.

Now educators, parents, and others can see at a glance how Oakland students and schools are doing. Our goal is that leaders and advocates will use this data to come together and focus energy and investments where they’re needed to make opportunity a reality for every public school student.

The data is sobering. At the report’s release event, Robert Wilkins, CEO of the YMCA of the East Bay and an Oakland Achieves Partner, closed with these inspiring words:

“The education system is a supporting wall of our civilization and it appears to be in rubble, but there are bright spots.

If we work next to each other, the wall of education, the backbone of the future of our children, will be straightened up, and we can restore the dignity and delight that we all know and believe is Oakland.

Let’s make the commitment that we are in this together and we will stick to it despite doubt and opposition. Shoulder to shoulder we can get this done.”